A number of parking card types is known which permit cashless parking. All of these are based on either the tearing-off or on the marking of certain indications of time, day, date etc., printed on the card, thus indicating the time of arrival and the time of expiration of the permitted parking period.
One of the types of known cards comprises a card made of cardboard with certain perforations defining precut tabs which can be torn off. This type is described in U.S. Pat. No. 3,966,232. Another card comprises a frangible surface layer which is destroyed by the user at the commencement of the parking period at certain areas of the cards.
There also exist parking permits which are issued by special devices into which the user inserts a certain sum of money at the beginning of the parking period, and which issues a receipt which indicates the permitted parking period, clearly indicating when the purchaser has to vacate the parking place. Such receipt is placed in the interior of the parked car so that it can be inspected from the outside.
Parking cards of various types have displaced to a large extent, the cumbersome mechanical parking meters into which coins have to be inserted and which are prone to mechanical failure and require expensive upkeep, and which are also prone to vandalism and to abuse by those who remove the coins.